Part 47 of this series.
We are beginning a three-chapter section about the city of Tyre (Tyrus): the ruin, renown, and then the rulers of Tyre. Tyre is a picture of the coming commercial Babylon of the last days. As God judged Tyre, so will the destruction of commercial Babylon be in the last days.
We divide the chapter thus:
v1-6 the cause of her downfall
v7-14 the conqueror at her downfall
v19-21 the consequences of her downfall
Israel was impressed by Tyre's wealth. Solomon had warned about these things in Ecclesiastes, that they cannot satisfy the heart of man. We have to beware of a materialistic outlook on life.
Nebuchadrezzar did not get any of the riches. People retreated to the island city. Fourteen centuries later Alexander the Great's armies took the rubble from the city and built a causeway, just as Ezekiel predicted, "they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water".
We still hear about a Tyre after its destruction, but it is a new city built in a different place. The area described here that was made bald is still there to this day.